“This has come as an emotional shock to us all and we are at a loss what to do,” he said. “My concern is how can they justify putting new bodies on top of old bodies and a lot of the graves they destroyed were war veterans so that hasn’t gone down well.

“I think more should’ve been done to make people aware.

“The way that they’ve ripped those graves up and the artefacts is heart-breaking; there was no respect.”

Dave Nicholls, Southwark Resident and bereaved son

MORE ABOUT HOW SOUTHWARK COUNCIL IS DISRESPECTING OUR NATION'S WAR DEAD:

'Southwark has been burying over CWGC WW1 and WW2 War Graves for years - without alerting or consulting the War Graves Commission, relatives or the public - and Southwark is STILL building over them.'

The removal of memorial stones and the mounding over of graves - and/or the actual exhumation of the deceased - are only part of the scandalous plans for Camberwell Old and New Cemeteries in Honor Oak. Ten acres of wild woodland, containing a variety of mature trees, have been sentenced to Southwark council's axe. And with them will go insect, bird and mammal habitats.

The designation of such a large area of flora and fauna is particularly Philistine, given the endless demands for more housebuilding in London wherever new homes can be squeezed in.

We should be preserving these pockets of green tranqility, not destroying them."

Do you know someone who was buried after 2011 on Woodvale in Forest Hill Road, Camberwell Old Cemetery and didn't know there were dead below?

In 2011, Southwark removed memorials and mounded over graves to lease 'new' burial plots above strangers' graves. There are tens of thousands of graves in this one small area. Burial over strangers was once common in the UK. Today, many families don't want this for their loved ones.

This is Southwark's burial plan: Bury over the dead and when they run out, re-use graves.

Southwark calls it ‘lift and deepen’. They dig into a grave, lift up the remains of the dead person, dig the grave deeper, put the remains back in the grave, then bury another person on top the remains.

Some families don't mind. But many families find this very wrong. Southwark should buy new burial land outside the borough.

PHOTOS: 1. Southwark’s desecration of dozens of headstones of the poor dead in Brenchley Gardens, Camberwell New Cemetery, including Blitz victims. (often called 'Brenchley Gardens' or 'Honor Oak'). September 2017. Southwark obliterating graves in Camberwell Old Cemetery.

3. 4. New resting places in Camberwell Old Cemetery by Woodvale - above the remains of 1000s of poor Londoners.

Photos: Headstones removed from Woodvale were placed on this tree when Area F was mounded over for new burial above 1000s of graves. 2. A new marker from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission all but admitting that the war hero had been buried over. Do the new owners of these plots know what lies below?

And Video: BBC LONDON REPORT ON SOUTHWARK CEMETERY DESTRUCTION https://youtu.be/Or24YO7vvK8

Photo from Camberwell Old Cemetery of a skull from a possibly illegal burial. South London Press 2008. Southwark is acting to make digging up the dead legal and normal.